Statistical and Thermal Physics Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy Overview

The STP collection is a part of the ComPADRE Digital Library and National Science Digital Library and managed by the American Association of Physics Teachers.

The STP collection may be used without providing any personal information.

An individual may create an account on STP to contribute to the community, customize their site interaction, or take part in member-only features. Any contributions made by a user to STP will be attributed to the user's account profile. comPADRE does not otherwise disclose, give, or transfer personally identifiable information to third parties unless required by law.

Aggregated usage information is collected for statistical purposes and may be used to help improve the site. All usage information is collected such that an individual's use cannot be distinguished.

Personal Information Use

Personal data collected on this website is meant to personalize the experience of users and facilitate interactions within the comPADRE community. Registered users may configure what personal information is available to other comPADRE users in their profile settings. Any contributions made by a user to STP will be attributed to the appropriate account's profile.

The STP collection does not otherwise disclose, give, or transfer identifiable information to third parties unless required by law.

User Contributions

Registered users may provide resource recommendations, forum postings, or other contributions to STP. Such contributions are attributed to the name of the user making them. The STP collection editors reserve the right to remove or alter contributed content as specified in the Statistical and Thermal Physics Terms of Use.

If you wish to participate, please remember that information disclosed is available for viewing by other members of this community. Please exercise caution when deciding to disclose any sensitive information on STP. Never submit content if you do not have the authority to share that information publicly.

Outside Links and Content

This site contains links to other sites. The STP collection is not responsible for the privacy practices or content of such Web sites. If you have concerns regarding a website we link to, we encourage you to contact us regarding your concerns.

E-Mail

Registered users may agree to allow STP to send updates or further information to their e-mail account. A user's e-mail preferences can be managed on the Account Settings page.

Feedback

If a user provides contact information on the feedback page, it is used to respond directly to the user's questions or comments. We may also file comments to help improve the site. Your personal information would only be shared with third parties with your explicit permission.

Cookies

A cookie is a small piece of information that is sent to your browser when you access a Web page. A session cookie is a line of text that is stored temporarily in your computer's memory. Because a session cookie is never saved, it is destroyed when you close your browser. The STP collection uses session cookies during user visits to save preferences. Certain STP applications require session cookies to function correctly. If you have session cookies disabled, you may not be able to use certain features of our site.

A persistent cookie is a more permanent line of text that is saved by your browser to a file on your hard drive. The only persistent cookie regularly used by STP is for registered users that choose to use the Auto-Login feature. Such cookies expire 30 days from login.

At times, a persistent cookie may be used for short-term research purposes as defined in New Features and Research. At this time, no such cookies are being used on STP or have been used since the website inception.

Web Site Usage

Usage patterns of STP site are automatically logged to help diagnose problems, analyze trends, and improve the usability and performance of the site. User access is anonymous and IP addresses are not linked to personally identifiable information.

In addition to internal logs, Google Analytics and Omniture SiteCatalyst page tagging solutions are used for logging. No personally identifiable information is provided to these logging services by STP.

All logged information is collected in aggregate, such that the usage of individuals cannot be distinguished. Such aggregated information is shared with the National Science Digital Library for program evaluation. Additionally, aggregated information may be made available publicly, such as in program evaluation reports. Such aggregated information, such as the number of visitors to STP, does not include personally identifiable information.

New Features and Research

New features and interfaces are periodically developed for STP. At such times, research may be conducted into the usage of the site to help improve its appearance, performance, or usability. For instance, a trial feature might be made available to a random sampling of anonymous users and usage statistics analyzed.

When appropriate, such research projects will be approved by an Institutional Review Board governed by Title 45 Part 46 of the Code of Federal Regulations. Such projects must either: 1) not conflict with this Privacy Policy, or 2) require explicit consent.

Approved research will be described at least 30 days prior to the research on the ComPADRE Research page. Links to past research projects are also available. If any research on STP results in a publication, users of the website will be notified in the STP News section of the web site.

To date, no such research projects have been conducted on STP. Additionally, there are no current research projects being conducted on STP.

Children's Guidelines

The STP collection does not cater to visitors under 13 years old and will NOT store or require any personally identifiable information from users known to be under 13. If STP learns that a user under the age of 13 has provided personally identifiable information, that user's identifiable information will be removed from the database.

Security

The STP collection has security measures in place to protect against the loss, misuse, or alteration of information under our control. If you have any questions about the security of our site, please contact us.

Account Deletion

Legal Disclaimer

We may disclose personal information when required by law or in good-faith believe that such action is necessary in order to conform to the edicts of the law.

Notification of Changes

We will notify registered users that have subscribed to receive Statistical and Thermal Physics updates if a material change will be made to our privacy practices. Additionally, we will alert users on the front page of STP at least two weeks prior to such a change.

Policy Feedback

If you have questions or concerns regarding this policy, please contact us.